What is Vakanssi?

A plain-language introduction to Vakanssi, the self-hosted applicant tracking system that runs inside your own WordPress site, and what its free and Pro tiers each do.

Vakanssi is an applicant tracking system (an ATS) that runs inside a WordPress website. It gives you a public careers page where candidates apply, and a private area where your team reviews, tracks, and hires them, all on a site your company already owns.

These docs assume no WordPress experience. Every walkthrough starts from the moment you sign in, and each WordPress term is explained the first time it appears. If Vakanssi is not installed yet, start with Requirements & installation.

What an applicant tracking system does

If you have ever run hiring from a shared inbox and a spreadsheet, you know the pain. CVs get scattered across email. The tracking sheet is out of date the moment two people touch it. And nobody can say, at a glance, which candidates are still waiting to hear back from you.

An applicant tracking system gives every application one home:

• One inbox. Every application, with its CV, cover letter, and contact details attached, lands in the same place, whichever job it is for.
• Stages. Each candidate sits in exactly one stage of your process (New, In Review, Interview, Offer, Hired, or Rejected), so anyone on the team can see where things stand at a glance.
• Automatic email. Candidates get a confirmation when they apply, your team is notified of each new application, and rejection or offer messages go out from templates you control.
• A record. Every stage move, note, and email is logged against the candidate, so a decision is still traceable months after the role is filled.

An ATS inside your own WordPress site

Most applicant tracking systems are separate subscription services. Your careers page lives on their domain, your candidate data sits on their servers, and you pay per user, per month.

Vakanssi takes a different route. It is a WordPress plugin, an add-on you install into the website your company already runs. (WordPress is the software behind that website. A plugin simply gives it new abilities.) Running your ATS this way means:

• Your careers page is part of your site. Same address, same branding. Candidates browse your careers page and apply without ever leaving your website.
• Your hiring data stays yours. CVs and candidate details live on your own server, not a vendor’s, which matters when you answer privacy questions. You decide how long data is kept. See Privacy.
• Your whole team can use it. Colleagues get accounts with hiring roles (Recruiter, Hiring Manager, HR / Compliance), with no per-seat fees. See Roles & permissions.
• Google can find your jobs. Published jobs carry the structured data that Google’s job search reads. See Google for Jobs.

What the free plugin includes

The free plugin is a complete hiring workflow on its own. Nothing below is a trial or a countdown: you can post jobs, collect applications, interview, email, and hire without paying.

• Jobs & careers. Post job listings, organize them by department and location, and publish a careers page. See Creating jobs and Your careers page.
• Application intake. A built-in application form with secure CV upload and spam protection. See Receiving applications.
• Applications inbox and board. An inbox and a drag-and-drop board that move candidates through your stages, one at a time or in bulk. See Working with applications.
• Notes. Private notes your team can leave on any candidate.
• Interviews. Schedule interviews, add interviewers, and send calendar invites. See Interviews.
• Email. Automatic applicant confirmations, team notifications, and rejection or offer messages, all from editable templates. See Emails.
• Privacy & compliance. Consent capture on the form, data export and erasure through WordPress’s built-in privacy tools, and automatic cleanup of expired candidate data. See Privacy.
• Import. Bring jobs and applications (CVs included) in from another hiring plugin without touching the original data, or create jobs in bulk from a CSV spreadsheet. See Import.

What Pro adds

Vakanssi Pro is the paid, premium build of the same plugin. The free plugin contains none of its code, so nothing in your free admin area is locked or greyed out. On the Pro build, each Pro feature is a module you switch on or off under Hiring, then Tools, then Features; see Features.

• Scorecards Pro feature, requires a Vakanssi Pro license. Reviewers rate candidates against a shared rubric and give a recommendation, so decisions rest on more than gut feel. See Scorecards.
• Analytics Pro feature, requires a Vakanssi Pro license. Hire rate, time to hire, source effectiveness, and where candidates drop off between stages, shown right on Hiring HQ. See Analytics.
• Scheduling Pro feature, requires a Vakanssi Pro license. Let candidates self-book an interview from times you propose, instead of trading emails. See Interviews.
• Candidates Pro feature, requires a Vakanssi Pro license. A searchable people database with profiles, tags, manual sourcing, and duplicate merging, so a great runner-up is one search away next time. See Candidates.
• Collaboration Pro feature, requires a Vakanssi Pro license. Internal notes with @mentions, candidate assignment, and the option to limit who sees which applications. See Collaboration.
• Presence Pro feature, requires a Vakanssi Pro license. See which teammates are viewing the pipeline right now, with the board and list updating live as they work.
• Screening questions Pro feature, requires a Vakanssi Pro license. Extra questions per job, with applicants who miss a must-have flagged automatically. See Screening questions.
• Email automation Pro feature, requires a Vakanssi Pro license. A library of your own email templates, and a chosen email sent automatically when a candidate reaches a stage. See Email automation.
• Integrations Pro feature, requires a Vakanssi Pro license. Send hiring events to Slack, Microsoft Teams, or webhooks (Zapier, Make, your own tools). See Integrations.
• Advanced anti-spam Pro feature, requires a Vakanssi Pro license. hCaptcha and reCAPTCHA v3 as extra challenge options on the application form, alongside the free Cloudflare Turnstile support.

For a side-by-side breakdown, see Free vs Pro.

Who these docs are for

Vakanssi has two kinds of reader, and these docs serve both:

• HR and recruiters. Task-by-task guides that assume zero WordPress knowledge. Every screen has a screenshot and numbered steps. Good starting points are the recruiter journey and Creating jobs.
• Developers. Precise references for whoever maintains your site: architecture, hooks, the REST API, and shortcodes.

Where to go next